How do you present a bunch of technical information to a non-technical audience? Ideally, you would take a USB drive, download all the technical information you have, plug it into somebody’s head, and have it download into their prefrontal cortex.
That cannot happen (yet). So here are the three core ideas I use instead, plus the exact fix I applied to an 80-slide technical presentation at Crayola.
I have spent a good chunk of my career figuring out how to best get content into people’s heads. I have worked with rocket scientists, rooms full of 500 PhDs, and small armies of university faculty, teaching them how to get the technical information in their heads and pass it along to their students and colleagues.
Strategy 1: Don’t Present It to Them
The first and most important answer to how you present technical information to a non-technical audience is: don’t present it to them.
The idea that you can just talk and lecture at somebody for 45 minutes and hope they retain it is an old way of thinking. Think about how many lectures you sat through in your schooling life and what percentage of that information you have retained. The stats are not good. Easily less than 2% of your astronomy class is still in your brain. And you are not an exception to this brain rule, which means that if you present technical information to someone in a one-way format, less than 2% of it will stick. That is a really good way to waste a lot of people’s time.
So what do you do instead? Stop presenting and start inviting people into experiences and conversations that allow them to learn.
For example, take Mark Collard’s book Serious Fun. If I wanted to teach you what was on page 55, I could start reading page 55 to you. Or I could print out 30 copies assuming there were 30 people in the room, hand page 55 to everybody, and say, “Everybody, you’ve got two minutes. Thoughtfully read page 55. At the end of that, I’m going to ask you to get into groups of three and answer the question: What struck you about page 55?”
That is zero effort for you. The group gets some time and some silence. Silence is a really good adult learning technique for helping people digest technical information. When they are trying to keep up with you, especially if you talk fast, it is too distracting. Give people some quiet time.
Strategy 2: Hand It Over to Them
Oftentimes, Amazon executive meetings start with somebody having prepared a six-page narrative brief. They do not send it out as a pre-read because executives are too busy; they will not pre-read it. So up to the first half hour of the meeting is spent reading that six-page brief on whatever they need to decide or talk about. They read it, then they discuss it.
If you want to present technical information to a non-technical audience, give it to them with an objective. Read it, understand it, maybe even highlight the things you think are essential to discuss. Then come back, and you fill in the gaps. Let people teach themselves whatever they can, and then you fill in the gaps. If they highlight what is confusing, you get to ask the group, “What do you have highlighted?” And you can just teach to that.
Do you realize how revolutionary and miraculous that idea is? Because 99% of presentations on Earth are just dry. There is a reason the phrase “death by PowerPoint” exists.
Want to shortcut your learning? Come to the Connectors Summit this December. Fully virtual, yet designed for depth.
Strategy 3: Insert a Blank Slide Every Seven Slides
Right around COVID times, I was consulting with Crayola (sharing this story with permission). After I led a workshop with them on what I call The Contribution Method, a very simple framework to ensure that every form of training or education you design is built for really active, engaging, experiential participation, I got pulled in for a consult with the quality assurance group.
They had an annual meeting with 80 slides in the presentation. And it was Crayola, a really fun, colorful, awesome company with an amazing culture, but there was some technical and dense information in those slides.
Here is how I fixed it. I said, “Honestly, you know all this stuff way better than I do. All I want you to do is, every seven slides, insert a blank slide. And when you get to that blank slide, think about one thoughtful way you can invite everybody’s participation, contribution, or connection.”
That is it. Every seven slides. If you have really technical information and a lot to get through, take a one-to-three-minute participatory break every seven slides, at minimum, to ensure people’s brains don’t die. Here are
Keep Going
If you want to find out why I stopped using slides over 10 years ago (I have presented to hundreds of thousands of people with zero slides), you can watch the video super creatively titled “Why I Stopped Using Slides 10 Years Ago.”
Want to go deeper? Come get a live, experiential crash course in The Contribution Method this December at the Connectors Summit.
I’m Chad Littlefield. Have an awesome day.
